Sahak

Also known as St Sahak and Sahak the Great

Events 

Date of Birth: unknown.

Place of Birth: unknown.

Date of Death: 7 September 439.

Place of Death: Blur, Bagrewand.

The date and place are given by Ghazar P'arpets'i [18]. 

Place of Burial: Ashtishat, Taron.

The place is given by Ghazar P'arpets'i [18].

Relationships

Father: Nersēs.

This relationship is given by Ghazar P'arpets'i [13] and by Moves Khorenatsi [5.49].

Mother: unknown.

She is said to be Sanducht, daughter of Vardan Mamikonian in a later anonymous life of St Nerses.

Spouse: unknown.

Children: 

(Complete source citations for facts about the children on this page are currently outside of the scope of this project.)

Sahakanoysh married Hamazasp Mamikonian.

Evidence

from Ghazar P'arpets'i [13]

Now because the naxarars of Armenia were unable to stand the dissolute and deviant conduct of king Artashes, they assembled in numbers by the great patriarch of Armenia St. Sahak, son of St. Nerses, from the Part'ew line.

[16]

..Once again, united, they assembled and clasped the feet of the blessed man of God, Sahak. With mournful entreaties and copious tears they threw themselves before the true patriarch, and said:

"We have sinned before Heaven and before you. Pardon us sinners, and imitate your ancestor the pious Gregory who overlooked the severe torments and batterings he was subjected to by our ancestors….”

[18]

… [Sahak] lived for many years and having reached deep old age, he died peacefully in the village named Blur in the district of Bagrewand. [This occurred in 439], at the beginning of the second year of the reign of Vahram's son Yazkert [II, 439-57] king of Iran, on the 30th day of the month of Nawarsard on the second hour of the day. As we know accurately the day of the saint's birth, from the History of the venerable Koriwn so we surely know that the saint died on the same day, in the same month, as he was born.

The blessed man of God, Sahak, had no male offspring, only a daughter who was wed to Hamazasp, lord of the Mamikoneans and sparapet of Armenia. She bore three sons to Hamazasp: the blessed Vardan, the blessed Hmayeak and the venerable Hamazaspean. [Sahak] sealed [a document] and gave them the property of his villages and fields and whatever else belonged to him. He gave it in inheritance to them and to their children in perpetuity. Raising his hand [Sahak] bestowed many blessings upon them and bade them to retain the doctrine of the command of saint Gregory who had taught and preached truthfully throughout all of the land of Armenia—to revere and worship the one true God, Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

The coveted remains of this blessed man were taken by a multitude of priests and azats to [Sahak's] own native sephakan village named Ashtishat in the district of Taron. There they built a repository for the saint and placed the pure body of this just man in a place fit for the honest. ..

References

The Epic Histories Attributed to P‘awstos Buzand (Nina G Garsoïan tr. and comm.) (Harvard U.P., 1989).

Garsoïan, Nina. “The Aršakuni Dynasty” in The Armenian People from Anicent to Modern Times v. 1 (Richard G. Hovannisian ed.) (St Martin’s Press, 1997).

Ghazar P’arpets’i’s History of the Armenians. (Robert Bedrosian tr.) (1985).

“Généalogie de la famille de Saint Grégoire, Illuminateur de l’Arménie, et vie de Saint Nersès, patriarche des Arméniens, par un auteur anonyme du Ve siècle” (Jean-Raphael Emine tr.) in Collection des historiens anciens et modernes de l’Arménie v. 2 (1869).  

Moise de Khorène. Histoire d’Arménie (Florival tr.) (Paris, 1841).

Muradyan, Gohar. “ŁAZAR PʿARPECʿI” in Encyclopædia Iranica (1999, updated 2012, online edition).